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Hartsfield's Landing
PRESIDENT PLAYS CHESS GAME WITH SABER-RATTLING CHINESE -- The President (Martin Sheen) engages both Sam (Rob Lowe) and Toby (Richard Schiff) in intricate chess matches that underscore the wily game of brinkmanship Bartlet is playing with the Chinese, who threaten to turn their war games in the Taiwan Strait into the real thing if Taiwan begins test-firing their new U.S. Patriot defense missiles. Meanwhile, Josh (Bradley Whitford) is edgy about every vote out of the 42 cast in a remote New Hampshire burg that are counted immediately and always predict the winner of the day's crucial state primary. Elsewhere, a mischievous C.J. (Allison Janney) tries to upset Charlie (Dule Hill) by not accounting for her copy of the President's top-secret daily schedule -- prompting a war of mischievous games and tricks. Summary Cast :Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn :Stockard Channing as Abigail Bartlet :Dulé Hill as Charlie Young :Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg :Janel Moloney as Donna Moss :Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler :John Spencer as Leo McGarry :Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman :and Martin Sheen as President Bartlet Recurring cast :Anna Deavere Smith as Nancy McNally :NiCole Robinson as Margaret Hooper :Thomas Kopache as Bob Slattery Guest Starring :James Hong as David :James Keane as Registrar :Gregalan Williams as Robbie Mosley :Dennis Cockrum as Military Officer Co-Starring :William Duffy as Larry :Peter James Smith as Ed :Melissa Fitzgerald as Carol Fitzpatrick :Kris Murphy as Katie Witt :Timothy Davis-Reed as Mark O'Donnell :Mindy Seeger as Chris :Charles Noland as Steve :Lionel D. Carson as Security Guard Tommy :Rick Cramer as Officer :Matthew Yang King as Staffer :Jeff Mooring as Phil (Reporter) :Dan Sachoff as Reporter Todd Hawthorne :Teddy Lane Jr. as Agent :J.P. Hubbell as Agent :Jack Choy as Civilian Quotes :President Bartlet: Plus, guess what? :Sam Seaborn: What? :President Bartlet: The Patriot tests aren't why China is showing their teeth. :Sam Seaborn: They're not? :President Bartlet: No. :Sam Seaborn: Why are they? :President Bartlet: You ready to come inside? :Sam Seaborn: Yes sir. :President Bartlet: By the end of the week, Taiwan going to announce they are holding their first free elections. :Sam Seaborn: You're kidding. :President Bartlet: down at the chess board and the game he is playing with Sam Defend your queen. :President Bartlet: See the whole board. :Nancy McNally: Sir, the carriers are 35 minutes from the Strait now. :President Bartlet: All right. Leo You can bring the ambassador back now and get Beijing. :Nancy McNally: I’m sorry, sir, it’s a formality, but... :Leo McGarry: She needs the order. :President Bartlet: The Aegis Destroyers. :Nancy McNally: Yes, sir. Just out of curiosity, what if that doesn’t work? :President Bartlet: I don’t know, but for sure we’re gonna blame you. :Nancy McNally: Yes, sir. :Sam Seaborn: I’d like to try it without looking at the note. :President Bartlet: Okay. :Sam Seaborn: China agrees to stand down the war games. :President Bartlet: Right. :Sam Seaborn: And they agree to let Taiwan test the Patriots. One Patriot. :President Bartlet: Yes. :Sam Seaborn: And we... Please, I want to be right about this. We agree not to sell Taiwan the Aegis Destroyers for a period of... I don’t know... five years. :President Bartlet: Ten years, but you’ve got it. :Sam Seaborn: Sir, the Aegis... the Aegis radar technology isn’t something that... I mean, what if Taiwan did fall to China? Now they have – plus these ships cost something like $800 million apiece. Buying four of them would eat half of Taiwan’s defense budget. :President Bartlet: And so... :Sam Seaborn: You never were going to sell them the destroyers. :President Bartlet: his head But everybody wakes up alive in the morning and saves a little face. :Sam Seaborn: amazed I don’t know how you... I don’t know the word, I... don’t know how you do it. :President Bartlet: You have a lot of help. You listen to everybody and then you call the play. to his feet Sam. You’re gonna run for President one day. Don’t be scared. You can do it. I believe in you. at the board That’s checkmate. Trivia *The vote taking place at Hartsfield's Landing is ambiguous. Chronologically, the episode occurs during the primaries and not on the day of the general election. Yet Donna's conversations indicate that the voters are choosing between a Republican and the President as if they were voting in the general election. This could be because in New Hampshire, as of the episode's release date, those not registered with any party are free to vote in any party's primary election. However, this does not explain how Hartsfield's Landing has correctly predicted so many previous and consecutive elections. The results of this specific primary would have at least two victors; in this case, they would be Democrat Bartlet and Republican Ritchie. Based on the context of this episode, the residents of Hartsfield's Landing would be correct no matter who won the general election. This is likely a suspension of disbelief in order to dramatically tell a compelling story. *The community of Hartsfield's Landing is the fictional equivalent of Hart's Location, a small town in New Hampshire that is one of the first places to declare its results for the New Hampshire Presidential primary and U.S. Presidential elections. Dixville Notch is more famous, but the name of the town in this episode is clearly inspired by Hart's Location. *Some DVD versions misspell the episode name as "HEARTSFIELD'S LANDING" on the insert. *In one scene near the end, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) predicts that Sam (Rob Lowe) would run for President. Years later, Rob Lowe would go on to play President John F. Kennedy, a real life President that Martin Sheen previously portrayed in the '80s. *In the scene with Toby and the President playing chess in the Oval Office, Toby opens with 1. E4. While 1. E4 could be part of many chess openings, the Evans Gambit is a real opening and is actually played out by the two actors in this scene. Category:Episodes Category:Season 3